Alfredo Arias HorasWhen Amor de Días released their first album Street Of The Love Of Days in Spring of 2011, they weren’t presenting themselves as successors to either The Clientele or Pipas, but given that neither of those outfits have released anything new since Alasdair MacLean and Lupe Núñez-Fernández turned their attentions to it, it’s not unreasonable to expect that the new project provide at least some of the elegant pop fix that fans of either outfit would have demanded from them otherwise.

And with some degree of adjusted expectation – there’s more acoustic guitar than electric and tempos more languid, even compared to The Clientele’s autumnal pace – The House at Sea does just that. Floating above the hazy atmospherics, MacLean’s voice is a familiar, warm blanket and Núñez-Fernández’s timbre doesn’t follow far behind. And while those traits are holdovers from Street, the songwriting and arrangements on House are much more assured than on the debut – a benefit, no doubt, of being both artists’ primary concerns rather than a side-project. It’s unclear if we’ll be seeing new music from either The Clientele or Pipas in the new future – hiatus is such a nebulous word – but until then, Amor de Días will do quite nicely.

KEXP has an advance stream of the album ahead of its release on January 29. They’re also coming for a North American tour in March but, alas, are not stopping in Toronto this time.

MP3: Amor de Días – “Jean’s Waving”
Video: Amor de Días – “Jean’s Waving”
Stream: Amor de Días / The House At Sea

NOW welcomes Palma Violets to town for their Toronto debut at the Horseshoe tonight. They just released the latest video from their debut 180, which drops February 25

Video: Palma Violets – “Step Up For The Cool Cats”

The Line Of Best Fit chats with Veronica Falls, whose are streaming a new track from Waiting For Something To Happen before it comes out February 12. They play The Garrison on March 12.

Stream: Veronica Falls – “Buried Alive”

A Heart Is A Spade has a chat with Foals, who’ve released a new video from Holy Fire, out February 12.

Video: Foals – “My Number”

DIY points to a new clip from The Cribs for an old, previously unreleased song that will appear on their forthcoming best-of compilation Payola, due out February 25.

Video: The Cribs – “Leather Jacket Love Song”

NPR has a World Cafe session with Django Django, in town at The Opera House on March 12.

They’re only one-minute clips, but the two new songs being previewed by The House Of Love at their Facebook are pretty damned promising. The new album She Paints Words In Red is out April 1.

Those waiting for a North American release date for Jessie Ware’s Devotion – hopefully with a vinyl edition – can circle April 2 on their calendars. Those waiting for more North American tour dates… sit tight. Maybe read these features at The New Zealand Herald, The Age, The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Guardian.

The Telegraph talks to Richard Hawley, who has released a video for the final single from last year’s Standing At The Sky’s Edge – a clip that it has taken far too long to find a non-geoblocked version of, I might add. Anyways.

Video: Richard Hawley – “Don’t Stare At The Sun”

The Alternate Side has posted a video session with Bat For Lashes.

Billboard reports that Elvis Costello and The Roots have completed a collaborative album that will be released later this year. Even without having heard a note, it’s probably safe to say this will be the funkiest record of Costello’s career.

Spinner gets Bernard Sumner’s take on the drama that ended with Peter Hook leaving New Order.

Perhaps detecting that I was finally going to get around to completing my XTC back catalog collection – or perhaps commemorating the 35th anniversary of their debut White Music – The Guardian have dug up a feature interview with the band circa 1978.

Cat StevensloresThe general assumption as to whoy Teenage Fanclub release albums so infrequently – 2010’s Shadows was just their third effort in the 21st century, assuming you count 2000 as part of this millenium – is that despite having three superb songwriters in their ranks, they just work very, very slowly; if this is true, then clearly bassist Gerard Love isn’t the limiting factor. Based on Electric Cables, the debut album from his solo project as Lightships, he has no shortage of songs at the ready and most are as good as anything he’s contributed to the Fannies over the past decade.

Backed by a band of Scottish all-stars recruited from Teenage Fanclub, Belle & Sebastian and The Pastels, Love has crafted a record of gorgeously bucolic pop songs marked by Love’s airy vocals and guitar and flute lines gently bouncing off of one another. The notes aren’t content to simply jangle and decay, but rather hang suspended, shimmering in the air. Cables possesses enough energy and buzz to keep from coming across as too ephemeral, but the prevailing vibe is the return of and a return to nature and given the prevalence of pastoral themes in the song titles – “Photosynthesis”, “Sunlight To The Dawn”, “Muddy Rivers” to name a few – one can only assume that this is deliberate and not just a happy coincidence.

Let this be your soundtrack to Spring, and if it just so happens to linger in your ears through the rest of the seasons, then so be it. Norman Blake may have been first with his breezy Jonny side-project and while he’s not fronting it, it’s good to see Raymond McGinley active extra-circularly in Snowgoose, but Lightships is what every Fannies fan hopes for in a Teenage Fanclub side-project in that it sounds like Teenage Fanclub. Which is to say beautiful.

Video: Lightships – “Sweetness In Her Spark”
Video: Lightships – “Two Lines”
Stream: Lightships / Electric Cables

NPR is streaming the whole of Spiritualized’s Sweet Heart Sweet Light ahead of its release next week. Rolling Stone talks to Jason Pierce about the new album and Pitchfork finds out what he was thinking when he selected the album art. They play The Phoenix on May 5.

Stream: Spiritualized / Sweet Heart Sweet Light

JAM, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Georgia Straight talk to Elvis Costello about busting out the “The Spectacular Spinning Songbook” for his recent tours, though it won’t be in play when he’s at Casino Rama on April 19 – guess they prefer people do their gambling on the casino floor than in the theatre. The Return Of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook live CD/DVD culled from the Summer 2011 leg of the tour came out last week.

Pitchfork points out that Field Music are streaming their contribution to this year’s Record Store Day release schedule; a 7″ featuring a cover of Pet Shop Boys’ “Rent”, which kicked off a mini PSB marathon over these parts; never a bad thing.

Stream: Field Music – “Rent”

Daytrotter has posted a session with Clock Opera, whose debut Ways To Forget was supposed to be out now but has been pushed back until April 23 in the UK.

DIY talks to Mystery Jets about their new album Radlands, due out April 30. They’re at The Sound Academy on June 19 in support of Keane.

Interview talks to Hot Chip about their new record In Our Heads, coming out June 12 and justifying a visit to the Sound Academy on July 15.

Stylist talks fashion with Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine. She’s at the Molson Amphitheatre on August 2.

Loud & Quiet talks to Trailer Trash Tracys.

Django Django have released a new video from their self-titled debut.

Video: Django Django – “Storm”

The Quietus tags along with British Sea Power as the band plays a concert at the CERN project in Switzerland.

Slicing Up Eyeballs has complete video of one of The Wedding Present’s shows at SXSW last month.

In the, “karmic balance for Anglophiles” department: Jarvis Cocker and Kevin Shields, in conversation with Shortlist and Pitchfork respectively, reveal that new material from both Pulp and My Bloody Valentine could be in the works – Pulp were also on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last night – but Damon Albarn tells The Guardian in very few uncertain terms that Blur – and Gorillaz if you care about Gorillaz – are probably over following a final single and the Hyde Park show this Summer. DIY looks at what the definitive end of Blur would mean for the band’s legacy.

New to my ears lately are Swedish duo The Deer Tracks, whose two mini-albums so far – The Archer Trilogy P1 1 and The Archer Trilogy Pt. 2 (part three is out this Fall) – remind me not a little of early Múm, which is a good thing indeed. Also good is their North American tour this Summer is missing a Toronto date at the moment, but there’s a conspicuous two-day gap between Chicago and Montreal that just happens to fall during NXNE. So yeah.

MP3: The Deer Tracks – “Dark Passenger”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Ram Ram”
Video: The Deer Tracks – “Fra Ro Raa / Ro Ra Fraa”

Pitchfork reports that another co-ed Swedish duo with a penchant for electronics – jj – will release a new single/EP/something entitled jj n° 4 on May 8, and the first track from it is now available to download.

MP3: jj – “Beautiful Life”

Anna Ternheim has announced the June 5 North American release of her new record The Night Visitor and offered a first sample for downloading and listening purposes.

MP3: Anna Ternheim – “The Longer The Waiting (The Sweeter The Kiss)”

Knox Road, The Boston Herald, Metro, and USA Today speak with Of Monsters & Men, in town at The Phoenix on April 12.

The second video from Ladyhawke’s Anxiety, out May 29, is now available to watch.

Video: Ladyhawke – “Sunday Drive”

Phil SharpIt took me a while to warm to England’s Metronomy – perhaps not unusual considering how deliberately chilly their particular vein of electro-pop tends to be. But warm to it I did, or at least to their 2011 Mercury-shortlisted album The English Riviera; just not quite in time to catch them on their last pass through town last October. I was still recovering from Iceland Airwaves and had something like four or five other shows that week – something had to give, and it was Metronomy.

Well, thank goodness for Coldplay and remixes. Yeah, that’s not something I ever thought I’d write, but thanks to being tapped to open up for some of Coldplay’s western North American dates and also the release this week of The English Riviera: Unreleased Remixes in the US, the band has enough cause to cross the Atlantic again. Okay, getting asked to play Coachella and having sold out at least some of the dates on that Fall tour were probably also some incentive. In any case, they’re back in town at The Hoxton on April 2, and I won’t miss them this time around.

Thanks to Embrace, you don’t have to either. I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show and to win them, just email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Metronomy” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me before midnight, March 25.

And while you’re waiting to find out if you won, maybe put their just-posted Daytrotter session on repeat while reading this interview with bandleader Joe Mounts in The Independent.

MP3: Metronomy – “The Look”
Video: Metronomy – “Everything Goes My Way”
Video: Metronomy – “The Look”
Video: Metronomy – “The Bay”
Video: Metronomy – “She Wants”

I’ve never prayed for autotune to be utilized on anything, let alone a live record, but there’s a not insignificant part of me that hopes the Florence & The Machine MTV Unplugged album just announced gets a little pitch polishing before it’s released on April 9. If you’ve heard her live – and you can do so on August 4 at The Molson Amphitheatre – then you know what I’m talking about. And oh yeah, there’s another new video out from Ceremonials.

Video: Florence & The Machine – “Never Let Me Go”

The Quietus chats with Elizabeth Morris of Allo Darlin’, whose new album Europe is due out in May. And as disappointed as I was that their Spring tour is just American and not North American, I’m very excited that they’re going to be part of this year’s NYC Popfest and that I’ll be in New York on the day – May 20 – that they’re playing. Huzzah!

Breakthru Radio has got a video session and The San Francisco Examiner an interview with Slow Club.

Veronica Falls compiles and annotates a mixtape for The Fly.

It escaped my notice until now that Elvis Costello – and presumably “The Spectacular Spinning Songbook” – was going to be back in the general geographic region this Spring. If you missed he and The Imposters last Summer, consider a trek up to Casino Rama on April 19; it’s a fantastic show.

MP3: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – “Radio Radio” (live at The El Mocambo)

Billy Bragg talks to Billboard about the forthcoming Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions set coming out on April 21.

DIY, The Irish Times, and Clash have features on Lianne La Havas, whose debut album Is Your Love Big Enough will be out on July 19 in the UK.

The Twilight Sad are featured in a video session at Beatcast.

Mystery Jets are streaming a first taste of their new album Radlands ahead of its release date of April 30.

Stream: Mystery Jets – “Someone Purer”

The Cribs, on the other hand, are onto their second preview track from new record In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull. It’s out on May 8 and they’ll be showing off other new songs from it at Lee’s Palace on April 11.

Stream: The Cribs – “Come On, Be A No One”

London’s Dry The River are featured in pieces at The Fly and Spin and perform in a DIY video session. Shallow Bed gets a North American release on April 17 and they’re at The Garrison on March 27 opening for Bowerbirds.

This is an interesting little release – Swervedriver main man Adam Franklin has released a new 7″ consisting of a Wolf Parade cover on the a-side and his interpretation of a rare Clientele track on the reverse. You can stream both sides at Soundcloud.

Stream: Adam Franklin – “Shine A Light”/”Elm Grove Window”

The Guardian examines the thriving Scottish music scene.

DIY has a video session with Loney Dear.

The Guardian declares Amanda Mair their new artist of the day. Her self-titled debut gets a North American release on June 5.

State talks to The Jezabels, who just won The Australian Music Prize for Prisoner and are in town at The Mod Club on April 18.

It’s funny that not too long ago, I was toying with the idea of building another website for the sole purpose of listing local shows with as much useful, accurate information as possible. Clearly I didn’t get around to it, and it’s just as well because in addition to JustShows.com, which popped up a few months back and gets kudos for being clean, timely and accurate, we now have Show Gopher, which distinguishes itself with a handy grid layout and streaming audio for as many of the artists as possible. Which just goes to show – if you want something done, just procrastinate long enough and someone else will do it for you.

Shervin LainezYou know how the internet basically shuts down when the US goes on holiday? Well it does, and that’s why today’s post is a bit slight to say the least.

And we’ll kick it off with a couple of sessions to listen to, watch and download from The Antlers to mark the release this week of their (together) EP. It’s a companion to this year’s Burst Apart long-player, which contains the remixes and covers that are standard for these sorts of releases but also re-recordings of selections from the record with the assistance of artists such as Nicole Atkins and Neon Indian. It vacillates between interesting and meandering and if you’re trying to decide between hearing it or Burst Apart, by all means go with the full-length – it’s gorgeous – but if you’re needing an Antlers fix, this may do ya.

It also provides an occasion for Daytrotter and Paste to post up sessions with the band, the former downloadable and purchaseable and the latter watchable. And just because, here’s that xx cover that also appears on (together).

MP3: The Antlers – “VCR”

Pitchfork has premiered the first sample of Sharon Van Etten’s forthcoming Tramp, out February 7. She plays Lee’s Palace on February 21.

MP3: Sharon Van Etten – “Serpents”

Pennsylvanian punks Pissed Jeans have made a date at Sneaky Dee’s for January 20 of the new year, tickets $15 in advance.

MP3: Pissed Jeans – “Dream Smotherer”
MP3: Pissed Jeans – “False Jesii Part 2”

NPR has a World CafetUnE-yArDs.

Ivy have released a new video from this year’s All Hours.

Video: Ivy – “Fascinated”

Matthew Sweet talks about and performes his Girlfriend-era gem “I’ve Been Waiting” for The AV Club.

Paste has an extensive career-spanning retrospective piece on R.E.M..

The Jayhawks play a set for NPR’s World Cafe and give an interview to Country Standard Time.

For Folk’s Sake points to session at Abbey Road for Channel 4 (watchable only from the UK, unfortunately) wherein Laura Marling plays Emmylou to Ryan Adams on a performance of “Oh My Sweet Carolina”… and it’s very good. Marling is in town for two sold-out shows at Camera Bar on December 7 and Adams is at the Winter Garden Theatre on December 10.

NOW and The Victoria Times-Colonist talk to Kathryn Calder, in town for a free show at The Horseshoe on Tuesday night.

Uptown and The Winnipeg Free Press profile Austra, who is at The Phoenix on December 1.

Dreamland Apparel and The AV Club hang out with The Rural Alberta Advantage.

Clash enumerates ten things they think you didn’t know about Jarvis Cocker.

You know that fancy Elvis Costello The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook!!! collector live set that was announced a little while back? Well Elvis doesn’t want you to buy it. Seriously.

Frank YangFirstly, thanks to The Grid for their preview piece on the Death From Above 1979 reunion tour which finally made it home for two nights at the Sound Academy last Thursday and Friday night. They do a far better job of encapsulating the band’s backstory than I could, since though I was certainly around for their first heyday in the early aughts, I wasn’t much of a fan. Some of their disco-metal hybrid was appealing and I dug Jesse Keeler’s bass tones, but it was generally too aggressive for my tastes and Sebastien Grainger’s vocals were definitely not my thing. When they announced they were splitting up five years ago, I didn’t give it half a shrug.

So why be at the Sound Academy to see the reunion? Mostly curiosity about this reunion which, even in the era of reunions, felt different to all the others. For starters, the response to it seemed disproportionate to how big they were when they broke it off, but as The Grid points out they were on the cusp of blowing up when they split and rather than see interest in them fall off a cliff as a result, evidently it kept growing into the realm of myth. Hence the high billing on festivals worldwide. Hence the playing to more people at home over two nights than they probably did in total over their first run. So curiosity, and also the fact that I happened to be outside the Beauty Bar in Austin, Texas back in March when they were soundchecking their surprise SXSW appearance – their very first comeback show and eventual near-riot – and it sounded great.

I’ve been to my share of reunion shows and most have had the sort of demographic you’d expect; mainly older fans from said act’s first go-around indulging in a bit of nostalgia with the mean age brought down a notch by kids who discovered the act in their fallow years and finally getting a chance to see them live (I tend to straddle the two). For DFA1979, however, the audience was overwhelmingly young – so much so that you got the sense if they hadn’t booked an all-ages venue, they wouldn’t have needed two shows. My theory is that those who’d followed the band in the first half of the decade had largely outgrown them, no longer running on the necessary blend of hormones and adrenaline, and instead these shows were being attended by those who’d been in high school or college when DFA were at their peak – see above about hormones and adrenaline – but had never gotten the chance to see them live. Until now.

And with youth comes energy and the jammed room was rather crackling with it as they awaited their hometown heroes to emerge, getting into form with a little exploratory crowd surfing to Iron Maiden over the PA and chanting, “D! F! A!” the way you might hear “U! S! A!” at a monster truck rally. With that as the pre-show noise floor, then it was no surprise that security had orders to be extra-vigilant and rightly so – when the curtain covering their giant “DFA 1979 2001-2006” tombstone backdrop fell to the floor and Keeler and Grainger strode out onstage, shit was lost (and so was their stage garb, with the all-in-white, bleached-blonde Grainger looking rather Jacob and Keeler playing The Man In Black, but I digress).

I must confess to only knowing a few songs from the DFA1979 oeuvre (even though it consists of just a single full-length in You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine and a few EPs and singles) but I don’t think that was a real issue as their aesthetic is pretty limited. Imagine grinding, metallic bass and drum riffing seasoned with synths and wailing vocals and you’re pretty much there. But what they lack in range, they more than make up for in volume and vigor. They pounded out one song after another while the crowd surged like a wave pool, steadily cresting with crowd surfers as drinks, clothes and three-finger devil salutes flew about. Early on it seemed like it’d be all business for the duo, with a “Thank you, we’re from here” offered by Grainger as the only bit of banter, but later on they got chattier with a highlight of the banter being Keeler’s response to a request for a bass solo: “every song is a bass solo”.

As mentioned, things got fairly samey to me after a while with the band offering sleek aggression and relentless rhythm in lieu of hooks – not that my head ever stopped bobbing to the beat. “Romantic Rights” was appreciated not only because its killer opening riff remains a high point in the entire DFA1979 catalog, but because Grainger took the opportunity to get up from behind the kit and wander the stage while singing, proper frontman-style. But even when my attention wandered from the music, there was also the audience to watch as they continued to freak out, head bang, what have you throughout the show. I may have been there mainly out of curiosity, but for many/most this was something they’d been waiting for for years and probably never expected, considering how acrimonious the original split had seemed. And for them, I’m pretty sure it was everything they’d hoped for and more. I get it, but I still don’t like the vocals.

Exclaim, NOW, BlogTO, The National Post and The Globe & Mail all have reviews of the show(s).

Photos: Death From Above 1979 @ The Sound Academy – October 27, 2011
MP3: Death From Above 1979 – “Romantic Rights”
Video: Death From Above 1979 – “Black History Month”
Video: Death From Above 1979 – “Romantic Rights”

Arctic Monkeys have released a new video from Suck It And See.

Video: The Arctic Monkeys – “Evil Twin”

PopMatters chats with Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons.

The Quietus talks to Jim Reid of The Jesus & Mary Chain.

Exclaim reports that Elvis Costello will be releasing a live set culled from the Los Angeles dates of this year’s “The Spectacular Spinning Songbook” tour, which came through town in June. Elvis Costello & the Imposters: The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook!!! will be released as a limited-edition CD/DVD/10″ box set on December 6 – with price to match – and less fancy editions will be released in the new year.

GQ talks to PJ Harvey.

Spin is offering a stream of the opening track from Noel Gallagher’s solo debut Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, out next Tuesday and showcased over two nights at Massey Hall on November 7 and 8. The Globe & Mail has an interview.

Stream: Noel Gallagher – “Everybody’s On The Run”

Nicky Wire of Manic Street Preachers discusses his Polaroid fetish with The Guardian. The images compiled over the Manics’ career will be compiled in a book entitled Death of a Polaroid: A Manics Family Album, out next month, and the band’s new best-of comp National Treasures is out today in the UK.

The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Globe & Mail and The Guardian talk to Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine about her second album Ceremonials, out this week.

Exclaim points to a stream of both sides of a new 7″ from former Long Blondes singer Kate Jackson, limited to 300 pieces and due out December 7. You may recall a different song was premiered a few months back, but it wasn’t sold physically so this is her first “proper” release.

MP3: The Kate Jackson Group – “Date With Dawn”
Stream: The Kate Jackson Group – “Wonder Feeling”
Stream: The Kate Jackson Group – “The Atlantic”

And Prince has announced two dates at the Air Canada Centre on November 25 and 26 as part of his “Welcome 2 Canada” tour. Yes he’s crazy but he’s also an incredible performer and if the “Welcome 2 America” shows already done are any indication, he’s giving the fans what they want this time out. So… yeah. Tickets on sale this Friday, November 4 at 10AM, ranging from $67.75 to $268.25, fees included.

Video: Prince – “Let’s Go Crazy”